Adeptus Titanicus - The Magic of Decals

Hi all.

As part of my AT builds I thought I best post some of the progress shots done on my Legio Astraman Warlord Titan, the first in the maniple.

The 8mm version is a copy of my 28mm version - the honourable Venatoribus Hastam, which I spent many an hour painting the checks on the shoulder armour plates. I couldn't conceive of how I would do this on a smaller scale as it tested my brush skills at the larger scale.



Col. Hertford put me onto a set of scale model decals (Microscale Decals 1/8" white checkers) - which I thought I would try. I didn't hold out much hope for them - as the scale was so small but I thought it was worth a try as using sellotape, a pencil and a steady hand really wouldn't be an option at 8mm scale.

I decided to use one of the more detailed spare plates from the warlord kit to test out the decals on. Initially I wanted to use blue squares on a white painted field as I thought the clarity of the colours would be better however the blue transfers were out of stock so I took a chance with the white.

I've tried making my own decals before and I've found it was always the application of Micro Sol and Micro Set that degrades the print - so taking a chance on professionally printed decals made sense.

I had the idea that I would apply the decal then cut around the raised detail on the plate. After priming and base coating the part with blue I then prepped the surface with Micro Sol, then put the decal in water as normal for the process. Once loose I applied it to the plate. Using a sharp scalpel blade I tweaked the decal into place then applied a liberal coat of Micro Set and let that sit for a few minutes.


Using a brush dipped in the solution I began to work the decal into the edges of the detail on the plate, as the chemical had softened the decal it was fairly easy to get the decal to form to the detail.


It took around 4 passes of application and working with the brush to get the decal to fit snugly around the edge of the raised detail. Once done my intention was to cut back the detail to expose the surface, however I decided to backscrape it instead (as you might to remove mould lines). This seemed a better plan as it didn't rely on accuracy (and knowing I'd need to replicate this on the very detailed shoulder sections of the Warlord I thought ease was a better route to take). as I was backscraping I noticed I was removing some of the definition on the rivets, I carried on regardless until I had finished half of the 'eye' detail.

I decided to first paint gold on the half of the eye that still had the decal in place so I could see the difference removing the decal had. It became apparent that the Micro Sol had done such a fantastic job on conforming to the relief that it was almost impossible to see the decal hadn't been removed.


I continued painting in the side that was backscraped (for completeness), I feel the loss of detail is unnecessary and is something that can be avoided. Once the gold was dry I decided to add a little weathering with some Agrax Earthshade added to Lahmian Medium, this added more definition to the gold and will allow for the covering of any slight mistakes.



I was pretty happy with the results as a quick tester and to this end I know have a clear plan and process in place to apply checks to my warlord (relatively) worry free.

- This has also sparked some ideas for using these on my Legio Astraman Secutarii for my 30K forces.

Stay tuned for more instalments of my Legio Astraman maniple for Adeptus Titanicus.

Stay keen and green.
KF

Comments

  1. That looks great, Micro Sol is awesome!

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    Replies
    1. I did have my doubts initially but yes the stuff is mana from the gods - it really does change your relationship with decals forever.

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